This dissertation adopts a cognitive approach and follows the foundational assumptions of cognitive linguistics "human experience -conceptualization-schematization-linguistic forms" for a contrastive study of English and Chinese passives, aiming at uncovering the deep mechanism that underlies the similarities and differences between English and Chinese passives.

As for English and Chinese passive constructions, a lot of linguists have made detailed research on them from different perspectives and achieved fruitful results.

Prototype theory and differences of word-formation between English and Chinese;